Photo: Fabrizio Boldoni/DPPI
Toyota has described its result in Friday’s FIA World Endurance Championship season opener in Qatar as “damage limitation” as its two GR010 Hybrids finished fifth and sixth.
The Japanese marque’s technical director David Floury made the remark after a race dominated by Ferrari, which swept the podium with its three AF Corse 499Ps, with Toyota unable to take the fight to the Italian marque on pure pace.
It came against the backdrop of Toyota going into the Qatar 1812km as the heaviest car in Hypercar under the Balance of Performance, 27 kg heavier than the Ferrari.
“As a team we did the best we could with what we had,” Floury said post-race.
“Unlike most of our competitors, we had no penalties, and we took every opportunity we had from a strategy standpoint. Fifth and sixth was about the best we could do.
“It’s a bit frustrating, but for the championship, it was damage limitation, I would say, considering the conditions we are in. Hopefully we can be a bit more competitive in the next races.”
The No. 8 Toyotas of Sebastien Buemi, Brendon Hartley and Ryo Hirakawa was fifth, behind the best of the BMWs, while Kamui Kobayashi, Mike Conway and Nyck de Vries claimed sixth place in the sister No. 7 car.
Team principal Kobayashi echoed Floury’s remarks when speaking to Sportscar365, as he said the race showed Toyota was a clear fourth in the Hypercar pecking order behind Ferrari, Cadillac and BMW.
“Ferrari was way too fast, as you can see, they had many penalties and still they won easily,” said Kobayashi. “We were very far away.
“But we could also see that Porsche was really struggling in terms of the weight, obviously. The weight effect is huge, and this time the Ferrari is lighter, so I think that’s the explanation. We tried our best to minimize the damage.”
Both Toyotas lost out to the No. 15 BMW M Hybrid V8 in the final round of stops as they took two fresh tires at the last round of pit stops, while the German marque opted for a fuel-only stop.
Kobayashi admitted that Toyota wasn’t prepared to risk triple-stinting its tires in the circumstances.
“Maybe we could have been one position higher, but at the same time there was a risk to triple-stint the tire,” he said. “We didn’t take this risk and this was the result.
“Compared to BMW, we only lost two points, so it’s not too bad.”
Hirakawa described finishing fifth as “kind of a victory” after Hartley’s spin in qualifying had left the No. 8 crew mounting a recovery charge from 17th on the grid.
On how the No. 8 got the advantage over the No. 7 at the final round of stops, the Japanese driver explained: “We could extend one more lap, and the No. 7 was having a tough time with the cold tires, so we were able to overcut a bit.”
Hirakawa offered a similar view to Kobayashi when asked about losing out to BMW.
“Maybe in hindsight one car could have [risked it] but considering the weight we didn’t want to take the risk,” he said.
“We didn’t do proper testing of a triple stint. It’s easy to say these kind of things in hindsight.”
